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You felt it was always going to be an important week for Lee Johnson and his squad after the international break.

After picking up a fighting win last weekend against Ipswich Town, the team would have felt confident going into two away games.

If I’m honest I expected Sunderland to win both games against Shrewsbury Town and Cambridge, respectively.

The Shrewsbury game was a huge disappointment for me though.

The Sunderland players celebrate a goal. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)

It really did feel like two big points were dropped.

After taking the lead and going a man up, I thought the game was handled and managed poorly by both the manager and the team.

To end up drawing the game was an awful outcome and the draw felt worse than a defeat.

Because of this, Cambridge on Saturday became a game that had a lot more pressure added to it than it probably should have.

Throw in Storm Arwen and the trip to the Abbey Stadium could have became a bit of a lottery.

The weather destroyed the game as a spectacle for me but the job at hand was still to win.

Alex Pritchard scored a great goal at Shrewsbury through the week and he continued his goals scoring run on Saturday.

The goal may have gone straight in from a corner but I would not have been surprised if he genuinely meant to score. With Aiden McGeady out for the next few months I think Pritchard is going to become a very important player for the team.

He is a player who has undoubted higher level quality and if he stays fit and continues to play regularly then there won’t be too many League One defenders who will enjoy coming up against him.

Back to the game and after Cambridge clawed their way back into it with an equaliser I was delighted with Sunderland’s response.

Stephen Elliott: This is why I'm feeling confident for Sunderland again despite mixed bag of results at Shrewsbury Town and Cambridge